Theme: The Baptism of Jesus
Once, every three or four
years in the area we lived in in
The scene at the river
was
probably very much like that. Matthew’s gospel tells us that, after John the
Baptist had gone preaching in the area round the river Jordan near Jerusalem, people
went out…from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. in great crowds. They came in great numbers; men and women,
then, as now, looking for a deep experience, for a decisive point that would
change their lives, looking for cleansing, for a new start…….
They made makeshift campsites,
lit fires, cooked, queued at the riverside to be baptised by John in the river
But the gospel of Matthew
declares to us that here in the midst of these milling crowds, queues of
chatting men and women, some laughing, some silent, some anxious, some joyful,
men and women from all walks of life, here, down at the riverside, a profound
revelation takes place,
when
Jesus steps forward to be baptised.
A profound revelation takes
place,
in
the midst of all this, of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
Now, many great thinkers of
the Church of the past and of the present have struggled to speak about the
Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, for here we are speaking of the
deepest things. But there are sublime passages, sublime moments in the Bible,
when something of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit is revealed to us more
clearly.
And this is one of them.
At the Baptism of Jesus.
Now, not all the loose ends
are tied up, and we may not be able to grasp everything we read, for the four
verses, from 13 to 17 in chapter 3 of Matthew’s gospel, about the Baptism of
Jesus point us away to the great immensities….. of
God’s dealing with the world.
But nevertheless:
At the Baptism of Jesus, mystery
is being revealed.
At the baptism of Jesus, what
was promised is coming into fulfilment.
At the baptism of Jesus what
lay hidden is being activated.
When Jesus, in the midst of all
the others who are crowding at the riverside, steps forward to be baptised, here
is a moment of permanent, lasting, significance.
However, if we read the gospel
of Matthew from its beginning, read the genealogy of Jesus at its beginning,
read of how His birth was announced to Mary, read of how wise men came from
afar to visit Jesus at His birth, when we come to the Baptism at the river
Jordan, we would quite naturally expect
the gospel here, to be telling us that, on hearing all that John the Baptist
was doing, Jesus arrived from Galilee in the north, and joined John in baptising those crowds of men and women. We would quite
naturally expect, perhaps, to find John baptising the crowds at the riverside
with Jesus standing alongside him.
But instead
! here is
the mystery – Jesus stands with the crowd,
with the anxious, with the hesitant, with those of a dubious reputation and asks
John to baptise Him. And John of course refuses, or at least tries to deter
Jesus from going ahead with it. John, you will recall, was the one who
challenged many who came out to the Jordan to hear him – in the fierce tradition of the prophets, John
sees to the heart of men and women, their sin, and their hypocrisy, with that
piercing spiritual insight of his, with that piercing gaze, little can be
hidden from him. But here, encountering Jesus, John falters – for what John
sees as he looks upon Jesus is light, pure light, perfect truth, sinlessness,
holiness, ineffable holiness….
So, Jesus is baptised, and at that dramatic moment we are told, rising out of the water.. heaven was opened, the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus, and the voice of the living God spoke. Here we have arrived at those great immensities we mentioned earlier……… Jesus baptised. The Spirit coming down upon Him. The voice of the Father speaks.
It is good, for a moment, to
think about that order…. that sublime order…
Jesus baptised. The Spirit coming down upon Him. The voice of the Father
speaks.
Jesus baptised
First, Jesus baptised. Instead
of standing and baptising with John, Jesus is baptised with the people. Instead
of standing and baptising with John, He is baptised with the men and women, the
silent, the anxious, the lost, the doubtful, the hypocrites in the crowd.
Being baptised, He is one with
those men and women.
Instead of standing and
baptising with John
Jesus is immersed, not only in
the flow of the waters of
And as the gospel unfolds, we
discover that in a great act of loving communion with us, in a great act of
loving communion with our condition, Jesus has taken our weakness, our
weariness, upon Himself. He who sees what the oppression of sin does to men and
women, to us all, what sin does to human life, takes the burden of our sin upon
Himself. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us, as the apostle says. And
in becoming one with the infirmities of human life, one with the sinful, …, being numbered
with the transgressors, as the prophet says. He shows Himself to be the Servant promised by the prophet, the
beloved Son of the Father.
The Spirit coming down
In the wonderful, the sublime
order here, the gospel
then declares to us that as Jesus, the Servant promised by the prophet, the
beloved Son of the Father rose up out of the waters, the Spirit came down upon
Him.
Now, of course, Jesus has always
walked and lived in the Spirit, but now the Spirit descends in new, fresh
creative power upon Him. At the beginning of the work that is about to begin,
Jesus is anointed by the Spirit, in the Spirit.
What that will mean is made
clear during the terrible spiritual experience that takes place after the
Baptism. Where Jesus faces through forty days in the desert, forty days of
conflict, and the most severe testing of Who He is, what He will do. Through it all, He has the assurance of profound, inexhaustible
help and strength through the Spirit. Throughout His life as the true and lowly
Servant, He will overcome sin, and death in grace and love, in the riches of
wisdom and understanding, courage and perfect faith, through the Spirit.
Now as the prophets
proclaimed, and the whole New Testament declares
when
we come to Christ He baptises us in the Spirit, the Spirit He first received
Himself. What we have of wisdom and courage and faith, and holiness and joy,
has its root in what the Spirit had been to Him. The Spirit He first received
Himself is now His gift to us – the personal Spirit of Christ, freeing us from
sin and death, blessing us with every blessing. And, the Spirit comes as herald
of what will happen next – which is, that the Father speaks.
The Father speaks
Then, once again, in the
wonderful, the sublime order here, the gospel declares to us that the voice
of God spoke. The Father speaks.
And note the order, after the Spirit
has come, the Father speaks.
It is always the Spirit who
opens our ears us to understand, who opens our ears to hear, it is
always the Spirit who brings the living Word to us,
to
teach us, to unfold to us the Word.
The Spirit has come, now the
Father speaks:
This is
my Son, whom I love, with whom I am well pleased.
There is much that could be
said about these words,
let
us simply say this:
Here is the Father’s loving
confirmation, affirmation of Jesus as Servant,
Those words, My beloved, in whom I am well pleased come from Isaiah 42.1f.
The voice of God, affirms
Jesus as the Servant promised in Isaiah.
The Servant, promised by God,
would be sent at the right point in time, who would be
rejected by His people, and would take upon Himself the sins of the many, of us
all. The Father,
confirms and affirms Jesus the Son, who He is, what He is. And all that comes
after this, all that Jesus will do, is in the light of this glorious, divine
confirmation, all that Jesus will do, is done in the Father’s purpose.
And what He will do as Servant
is to take upon Himself our infirmities, our sorrows our sin, our iniquity, and
so restore the broken breach between ourselves and the living God.
In His Baptism: Jesus shares
human life with us, He shares the Spirit with us, He
shares the love of the Father with us.
AMEN.